Surprise, Mom!

Last weekend, my friend Dennis and I drove back to Illinois to visit family and friends. It was a last minute decision on my part to bum a ride from him, since he was already going. Luckily, he agreed as long as I rode in the trunk. No, not really, but I did help with the driving and bought him some lunch. The drive was excellent, we had nice weather, low traffic, and we had a good time playing some Battlestar Galactica DVDs in his laptop. My intention was to surprise my Mom at her doorstep and it worked...kinda. She's just too smart and picked up on some subtle, suspicious behavior and had a small feeling that I would just randomly show up 750 miles away.

So we showed up on a Thursday evening and were leaving Monday morning. I had a lot of things to do and food to eat in a short time! One of the first things I did on Friday was to take my dad's motorcycle out for a ride. I rode about 30 miles or so, just enough to get a feel for the bike. It's a Honda Shadow, but looks and sounds deceive. It's a heavily modified bike, so it looks different and is louder than all-get-out. Friday was a beautiful day for a ride, and other motorcyclists agreed with me, but they were all Harleys. And they didn't wave back.
For lunch on Friday, Mom and I went to Culver's. I haven't had Culver's in a long time. Butterburger! For those that have never had Culver's, the chain is mostly in the Midwest and offer really good food (a big variety, too) and the best fast food service I've ever experienced. They also have frozen custard, which is much better than regular ice cream!


Mom had a salad. Ick, how boring and healthy!

For dinner, we went to Avanti's, our favorite restaurant. They are based in Central Illinois, and I had that food almost on a weekly basis since I was a wee lad. They offer Italian-ish food at really low price, so you can totally pig out and still spend half as much on dinner. Firstly, their bread is the best. And it's unlimited.


I'm not the most exciting guy in the world, so I always get the same thing: Tortellini and Half Gondola (sandwich).

Then, when I'm done with the tortellini, I utilize the leftover sauce to help more bread slide down my throat...

I also stopped by Gloria Jeans to try a new Mocha Chiller, since I have been having lots of Starbucks and Liquid Highway. Verdict: Not even close. It's okay, but resembles neither coffee nor mocha. It was just a big cup of sweet.

Dad and I took the opportunity to play some catch and some two-ball ping pong.

And just so Mom wouldn't feel left out, I made her take a picture with me, too.

OMG OMG OMG a new Jimmy Johns!!! This was in East Peoria. It would have been nice and close to PPG and our house in Marquette Heights. That makes, like 9 for the Peoria area. Greenville? Still just one.

I met my buddy Jon at Buffalo Wild Wings after looking at motorcycles for himself.

We happened to eat during the last few minutes of the Cubs-Cards game. I don't care about sports, but it was cool when the Cubs won in the 11th inning.

Here are my boneless wings covered in Wild sauce. Yum! I can't feel my lips!

On Sunday morning, we went to Northwest UMC. Still haven't found another band quite like SoulFix!

After church, I insisted we go to Godfather's for some pizza. For the first time in a long time, I really enjoyed the lunch buffet there. This restaurant was constantly bringing out fresh NORMAL pizzas. Yum!

I've been trying more iced coffees lately and figured I'd take the plunge and sample the McCafe iced mocha. The first sip was okay, but by the time I was halfway through, I realized it was disgusting. It tasted like burnt coffee....I won't make that mistake again. Sure, you can try and lure Starbuck's customer's away with a low price, but I'd gladly pay another $1 to have a Mocha Frap that tastes yummy.


On our drive home, we saw something interesting up the road....is it....YES it's the Weiner Mobile!!!

Let's catch up to it!! I think it was half Mini-Coooper S and Half Weiner.

Up farther ahead, we saw plenty of rainbows since we were driving in and out of rain.
Back home, I took the opportunity to wash and wax my 3G. You know, the car is 6 years old and I still just love looking at it. Sure, it has some scratches and dings and dents and lots of miles, but I sincerely love my car and will have a hard time finding something different when the time comes. For now, I'm happy to drive around in my little Eclipse.

On 30 rock the other night, did anyone else notice the Battlestar Galactica shirt that Salma Hayek was wearing? "What the frak?" is right! Any BSG fan curses with Frak instead of the other one. Why? Cause we can get away with it.

I have been going to the gym now for 5 days...and I love it! It's a nice, new sports center in Mauldin. They have 99% percent of what I want (no pool and no 1" barbells) and the place is really nice. Not crowded, either. And lots cheaper than the other clubs.

They have several different sections for weightlifting, such as freeweights and machines.

And all of the cardio machines have tv controls with headphones plugs..and some of them have their own tvs!!!

And a climbing wall. I don't think I'll ever use it, but I guess I could try it sometime...

On a different topic completely, have you seen the new taco plates?! I've been wanting one of these for years...someone just now made some. How many times has your taco fallen over on your plate and spilled all over?

Well, that's all I have for now. Erin and I are going to the gym a little later and I will probably grill some burgers for dinner (meat for Josh, veggie for Erin). The weather here has been wonderul for the last week or so....sunny and low 80's. This is what I remember Spring 2008 being like. Not rain and wind like it had been so far this year. The grass is starting to grow, but not fast enough for me to mow every week. I'm not even sure I technically have any grass...it's just vegetation of some kind. At least it's green. Ride safe everyone!

It's been a frak'n long time....

I apologize for keeping all ya'll waiting for over three weeks for a new post. That may be the longest hiatus ever in the history of LiG. If SNL can take 3 weeks off, so can I. Truth is, I've been extremely busy and preoccupied. If you can forgive me and move on, I will make it up to you with an awesome blog now, and another one in the next day or two. I have that much to tell you about. In the past couple weeks, I have taken a lot of time off and it has been wonderful. Several of those days were perfect for breaking out the fizzer for some long rides. One of them was 90 miles. That's quite a trip! I took several long rides in separate directions, each way was something new and different. I went through rolling pastures, farms, mountains, you name it. I'm spoiled to have these nice smooth roads so close to home. On one of the rides, I couldn't resist the urge to stop and snap a pic. Pay close attention to the street sign (if you can read it clearly enough). How appropriate!

One day, I stumbled on a "BRT" in the parking lot. If you don't know what that means after looking at the picture, email me and I'll explain it to you. This was way BRT, like BFRT.

One Saturday in March, Erin and I took Sam downtown and tested out the Swamp Rabbit Trail, which runs from the West End, down the river past Cleveland Park. It was a great day, besides the mixup at Liquid Highway. That didn't make the Mrs. very happy.

We couldn't wait to take Sam to the Barkery Bistro, a froofy downtown dog bakery and doggy stuff store. Sure, the tiniest cookies were $1 apiece, but you should have seen how excited he got everynight before he got one of them. He must know, somehow.

Erin and I haven't been very adventurous lately, so we decided to try a new restaurant. It's called Chin Chin and it's in Mauldin. I love how it feels like a real restaurant and not like 99.9% of other Chinese places. The server was very nice and the food was unbelievably good. Price? Well, not too bad, but a touch more expensive than our local favs.

Nice place!

The crab rangoons were hot and awesome. They were stuffed full, man!!

I got my norm, General Tso's chicken, but I asked them to make it extra spicy. They came through for me and it was very very hot. The chicken itself had a perfect texture and flavor.

Erin got something a little more healthy: rice, vegetables, and tofu.

Well, Easter came and went and I'll tell ya: it's much more fun with someone else! Remember last year's Easter? I went to a new church and a really crappy chinese buffet? Well, this year's was special because of our new church and the fact that Erin was here. Yay!

The services were so packed, they setup overflow seating out into the Son Room. Thanks, Chreasters!

Lutherans are Vulcan? Who'da thunk!?!

Here's a nice picture of us after service.

I played for the service and thought I'd grab a picture with my trombone. It's...soooo.....beautiful....

Just in case you were really really really bored, I signed up for Twitter, so look me up. I'm really doing it to stalk celebrities and fake celebrities, but it could be fun to micro-blog, too. Oh....and I joined a gym. It's the Mauldin Sports Center and I can't wait to start going later this week. Woohoo! I get to get back in shape. I really miss the times I had a few years ago doing serious bodybuilding (not like Mr. Universe or anything), just focusing on shaping my body while keeping good form and eating the right foods. Also, I can't fit into my clothing anymore, so that is the real driving factor. If you didn't know, I have lost 75 pounds twice in my life and don't foresee 10-20 pounds causing any difficulty. If you think I might have mentioned something about losing weight after Christmas, that was just a meaningless New Years' Resolution, caused by regret. Just forget I ever said anything about it before....I'm rebooting my effort. I'll keep you up to date.